Random title, I know, but aren't you just a little bit intrigued? I love a teaser title that makes you go ‘hmm’ and then *fingers crossed* sucks you in as you thirst to know more. To elaborate, ‘the talk at MOO’ happened earlier this week on Tuesday and was a talk by James Kirkham, Co-founder of Holler and Global Head of Mobile and Social for Leo Burnett. His talk was titled ‘Social Media will never be the same again’ and was hosted by MOO, the company who print rather fancy business cards and are based in Shoreditch #obvs
I hot-footed it to that talk with Digital Mums partner-in-crime, Annika, departing from the convivial Digital Mums shipping container office (yes, really) in Hackney. Despite the fact we were already in East London, we still managed to be a tad late #awks as we walked along Scrutton Street, firstly, missing the building completely (doh!) and, secondly, on entering, not realising the talk was in the building basement. The room was full when we arrived and James had already begun; I entered efficient mode, spied two stools in a meeting room off the kitchen, beckoned Annika over slyly so that the other two ladies we walked in with and didn't know wouldn't clock them and then we plonked them down by the ping pong table (naturally) and adopted that air of having been there t_he whole time._
James had a lot to say about social media and I took as many notes as I could in my trusty notepad with a purple-inked pen. Since a few of my colleagues couldn't make it, I felt it was my duty to soak up as much info as I could so I could share it later which is, well, what I'm planning to do now so here goes:
‘Effectiveness is now reliant on great ideas that people talk about’
James expanded on this further by citing the example of a Mercedes TV advert he had worked on that was a ‘socially driven advert’, appropriately hash-tagged with #youdrive. People were able to choose the ending of the advert by tweeting with the hashtag and were also sent back a personalised film poster image with a Mercedes featured within it. He highlighted the increase of reactive content and warned that brands should not saturate social media and simply fill it with noise.
Another interesting social media campaign that James talked us through was created for the Jura Whisky Distillery Company. The idea was created in an hour and cost in the region of £100 or so but the return was over £200,000 — impressive stuff, so what did they do?! In response to Google Maps somehow taking the Isle of Jura, where the distillery is based, off the map, they launched #findjura. The buzz around ‘the missing island’ was covered in the media and people seem to enjoy playing the devised ‘pin-the-tale-on-the-donkey’ style #findjura game. I must say, I preferred this example to the Mercedes one as it was for a lesser known brand, didn't have a massive budget behind it but using the power of a catchy hashtag and bags of personality, it was still able to have a huge impact. Isn't that what the power of social media is all about?
James is, unsurprisingly, a massive technology enthusiast and, honestly, the fervour of his speech on its rapid growth meant I was hardly able to keep up with my note-taking at times! One of the key points that stuck with me, however, is that when technology is completely adopted, the word initially used to describe it disappears as it becomes so embedded in our lives. To illustrate this, he said that in ten years time, the word ‘smartphone’ wouldn't be used any more and I must say I'm inclined to agree.
He gave us some rather impressive internet use stats to ponder:
14 years ago, 400m people use the internet
Today, 3bn people use the internet with 2bn accessing the internet via their smartphone
thus demonstrating the fusion of the internet with mobile telephony and why he stated earlier in the talk that ‘your social strategy is your mobile strategy’. It sure is.
This neatly segwayed into social media and apps we use on our phone. He cited the seemingly comic but ultimately highly successful example of ‘Yo’, an app that allows you, with the push of a button to send the word ‘yo’ to your contacts. The app was created by one person with zero investment and has gone on to have a million users. The point James was making about ‘Yo’ was that with its one-touch-one-function facility, the app played into what we are increasingly seeking — simplicity. He then stated: ‘The app that does everything is dead’ with the backdrop of an image of a Swiss Army Knife for good measure.
No talk about social media and mobile would be complete without a little nod to Snapchat, a social media platform that is way out of my demographic though I feel more and more curious about trying it out. Snapchat is all about being in the now, James said, while adding that it’s great for sneak peeks and teasers and is fun and exciting. Testino even shared some photos of Burberry’s new collection on Snapchat. He spoke to some teens about their interaction with Snapchat and it seems they find it authentic due to the increased honesty shared as a result of its transient nature. He also told us that young people used ‘Snapchat Discover’ as a means of seeking advice as they were drawn to its visual nature.
On this note, James told us about Tunepics, an app that essentially allows users to share pictures/photos with music over the top and the inclusion of a mood wheel. In case you hadn't noticed, emotion on social media is a big deal and it’s probably going to continue that way for some time and that’s not to mention the ever increasing use of emoji in our everyday interactions these days. I'm usually partially to the cheeky wink one most of the time but can’t say I've ever used the aubergine in earnest (we all know what it stands for right?!)
James touched on Periscope and highlighted the unpredictable success of #DrummondPuddleWatch (people watching other people navigate and/or jump into a massive puddle in Drummond!) as well as mentioning the relatively recent addition of Moments on Twitter. He also added that with WhatsApp, the rise and rise of messaging will present opportunities for brands to think about especially as these messages become increasingly audio/visual.
His speech continued at 100mph as he discussed ‘haptic experiences’ through the use of technology you wear, affective interfaces that allow you to judge the mood of the nation and the body as an interface through the use of wearable technology. I must say that the ‘Toxic Friend Finder’ bracelet did sound pretty out there but, hey, you never know…
As he summarised the key learnings to take away, he reminded us that our social media content needs to be:
Bespoke
Personal
Tailored
Relevant
As well as the fact that: ‘social is everywhere, it permeates everything’
Rounding off with:
‘Your ideas inspire technologists. There’s never been a better time to be in the ideas business’
It’s no wonder that once this talk was done, I found myself grabbing handful after handful of the free popcorn around and refuelling after taking all that in. As people started to leave, Annika and I found our Digital Mum mates and a trip to the pub was arranged to debrief. We couldn't possibly divulge what we talked about there because, hey, when mums get a night out, you know the conversation gets very interesting indeed. What I will tell you, however, was that a cat with a diamante collar came into the pub, strode along the bar and plonked itself on a barstool and naturally I took a photo and tweeted it as #standard. The internet still loves a cat pic, after all.